The United Nations suffered its worst attack on a peacekeeping mission in nearly a quarter of a century on Friday when suspected Ugandan rebels attacked a base in the DRC, killing at least 15 peacekeepers.
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The UN Security Council said the peacekeepers, who were all from neighbouring Tanzania, were killed in the North Kivu province late Thursday, alongside five Congolese soldiers, with 53 personnel wounded.
UN chief Antonio Guterres led an outpouring of outrage over the deadly ambush, calling it a "heinous" act.
"I condemn this attack unequivocally. These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime," he said in a statement.
"I call on the DRC authorities to investigate this incident and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice," he said. "There must be no impunity for such assaults, here or anywhere else."
The attack is the worst loss of life to a UN peacekeeping force since 1993 when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in Somalia during clashes with a local warlord.
The DRC's huge eastern region has long been wracked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, as well as inter-ethnic clashes, has increased significantly this year.
The UN in October declared a level 3 emergency in the DRC - a status afforded to conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
MONUSCO, the UN's peacekeeping force in the DRC, said its operating base at Semuliki, North Kivu, was attacked by "suspected ADF elements". The ADF is a Ugandan Muslim rebel group, one of several armed groups active in the North Kivu region.
"Attacks against those who are working in the service of peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are cowardly," MONUSCO head Maman Sidikou said in a statement, vowing to bring the attackers to justice.
Some those wounded in the attack are in critical condition with the medical evacuation of casualties continuing, while military reinforcements have arrived on the scene.
